News of the Week; May 10, 2017

GAMES

1. Russian Who Played Pokemon Go in Church Is Convicted of Inciting Hatred
2. Diego Maradona settles with Konami over likeness dispute: As part of the settlement, the legendary player will sign a deal this month to promote Pro Evolution Soccer
3. Bethesda Trademark Bullying Results In Indie Game Adding A Whole Letter To Its Name, But Not Its Logo
4. ZeniMax trademark forces indie to rename Prey for the Gods: “We could’ve fought this but we didn’t want to spend our precious Kickstarter funds”
5. Oculus Story Studio is getting shut down
6. Why the Closure of Oculus Story Studio is Good News for VR Filmmakers
7. ‘Antisocial VR’ and the power of isolation: How Recluse Industries is embracing the power of minimalism to offer a refuge for the solitary gamer
8. Half Of NBA Teams Jump Into The NBA’s New eSports NBA2K League, FIFA League To Start Soon
9. 17 NBA Teams Buy In For Startup NBA 2K Esports League
10. Here Are The 17 Teams Participating In NBA 2K Esports League’s Inaugural Season
11. Blizzard’s new MLG eSports division to focus on Overwatch: Major League Gaming now fully integrated into Blizzard, will also handle Call of Duty World League
12. eSports broadcasting – a difficult balance to strike
13. With streaming sites like YouTube and Twitch now serving as popular hubs for professional gamers, both game developers and the platforms themselves are struggling to forge new rules
14. ‘Skin economy is a good thing,’ says Playerunknown’s Battlegrounds creator
15. Activision Blizzard sees record Q1 earnings — 80% of which came from digital sales
16. Nintendo Switch boosts Nvidia revenues by up to $192m: Graphics hardware firm reports Q1 revenues of $1.94bn, aided by new console’s use of Tegra processor
17. Minecraft on Nintendo Switch does the trick, hides most of its compromises: Visual and rendering compromises are totally fine, but do you have enough controllers?
18. EA goes from cautious to “bullish” on Nintendo Switch support: Mega-publisher is “looking at other titles” to bring to hot-selling hardware.
19. EA Responds To Mass Effect: Andromeda’s Mixed Reaction, Talks BioWare New IP Delay: CEO Andrew Wilson says Mass Effect still has a bright future.
20. Zynga CEO: “We’ll be profitable in the very near future”
21. NaturalMotion founder Torsten Reil leaves Zynga
22. Chinese games market to hit $35bn by 2021 – Niko Partners: Mobile revenue to account for 58% of the market
23. EA expects console game sales to be 40% digital this year: And that the install base of PS4/Xbox One will hit 105m
24. YouTubers struggling to make money from Call of Duty: WWII – Depictions of real-war are seeing videos demonetised
25. TIGA aiming to increase employment in UK games industry by 40 percent
26. Things to Learn from 2016 Global Mobile Market and Actions to Take in 2017
27. The Extremes of Mental Presence: Cognitive Enhancement, Biohacking, Psychedelics, & Transhumanism
28. Top 5 VR Racing Sims for Oculus Rift and HTC Vive
29. Gear VR far and away the leader with almost 7m expected to be sold in 2017: SuperData’s latest figures show 782,000 units sold in Q1; HTC Vive continues to outpace Oculus Rift despite price cut
30. Microsoft Technical Evangelist on Presence in VR Game Design
31. This Pulsating ‘Haptic Skin’ is Somewhat Creepy, Mostly Awesome
32. Fan buys box of Blizzard stuff on eBay, finds StarCraft source code
33. Four games, including Pokemon and Halo, join World Video Game Hall of Fame
34. How Moral Panics Can Turn Into Therapeutic Tools: The Dungeons And Dragons Edition
35. Arcade group promises ticket and claw games will no longer be “rigged”: “Fair Play Pledge” says all redemption games can be “won by the application of skill.”
36. Rapidly Deflating Pikachu Rushed To Safety By Small Horde Of Suited Men
37. Vice Will Bring More Of Its Brands To Twitch After Successful Gaming Stream
38. Execution Labs wraps up with fund “fully deployed”: Indie incubator has a portfolio of 19 active studios; Jason Della Rocca, Keith Katz and support team are all moving on

DIGITAL

1. Trump administration to Supreme Court: Don’t hear EFF “Dancing Baby” case: Copyright fight over 29 seconds of a toddler dancing to Prince is now a decade old.
2. The Trump Admin’s Advice to Supreme Court in Copyright Case Is a True Mind-Bender
3. Hackers Hit Macron With Huge Email Leak Ahead of French Election
4. Evidence suggests Russia behind hack of French president-elect: Russian security firms’ metadata found in files, according to WikiLeaks and others.
5. Dear France: You Just Got Hacked. Don’t Make The Same Mistakes We Did. – A brief guide to the information wars. (Zeynep Tufekci)
6. Here’s How Far-Right Trolls Are Spreading Hoaxes About French Presidential Candidate Emmanuel Macron
7. Why the Macron Hacking Attack Landed With a Thud in France
8. Macron campaign team used honeypot accounts to fake out Fancy Bear: Digital team filled fake accounts with garbage data to slow information operation.
9. A Last Minute Influence Op by Data DDoS: Where there’s smoke, there’s a smoke machine!
10. As France becomes latest target, are election hacks the new normal?: After the hacking of the Democratic party in the US, governments have been braced for similar attacks. The onslaught has arrived
11. The great British Brexit robbery: how our democracy was hijacked – A shadowy global operation involving big data, billionaire friends of Trump and the disparate forces of the Leave campaign influenced the result of the EU referendum. As Britain heads to the polls again, is our electoral process still fit for purpose?
12. We are not done with state-sponsored hacking. Far from it.
13. Russians Say They’re Sick Of Hacking Accusations
14. China’s New Online Encyclopedia Aims To Surpass Wikipedia, And To ‘Guide And Lead’ The Public
15. UK Parliament Takes First Step Towards Making Google & Facebook Censor Everything
16. Dear Europe: Please Don’t Kill Free Speech In The Name Of ‘Privacy Protection’
17. Cisco kills leaked CIA 0-day that let attackers commandeer 318 switch models: Fix neutralizes attack code that was put into the wild in early March.
18. Trump’s Campaign Can’t Just Erase History on the Internet
19. Activists Are Pushing Back Against Tech Platforms That Quietly Empower Hate Groups
20. No More Trolls: Austria Rules Facebook Must Remove Hate Speech: An Austrian court case aimed at making Facebook responsible for policing vitriolic posts could have an international ripple effect.
21. Will Facebook actually hire 3,000 content moderators, or will they outsource?: The company refuses to comment on where those 3,000 workers will be employed.
22. Facebook Sees Video Views Rise By 32% In Q1 2017, Doubles Down On Long-Form Content
23. Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg: Paying For Live Sports Video Content Isn’t A ‘Long-Term Goal’
24. How Sheryl Sandberg’s Sharing Manifesto Drives Facebook: The COO inspires her fans, and her employees, to talk about sadness, even tragedy, at work. That can be healing—and very good for business.
25. Don’t Let Facebook Make You Miserable
26. On Facebook: Why won’t the company let us truly filter our feeds?
27. Facebook Tweaks News Feed to Crack Down on ‘Low Quality’ Sites
28. Facebook takes to newspapers to teach UK users how to spot “fake news”: Social network claims to have killed “tens of thousands of fake UK accounts.”
29. Ridiculous Lawsuit Looks To Hold Social Media Companies Responsible For The San Bernandino Shooting
30. Norwich orders: who pays under the notice and notice regime? Voltage v Doe
31. Microsoft’s bid to bring AI to every developer is starting to make sense: The APIs are getting good enough to be built into production systems.
32. The Commodification of People
33. Kodi: Open source TV app inspires full-blown copyright panic in the UK – Descended from Xbox Media Center software, it’s a crime wave to copyright cops.
34. AG Szpunar says that Uber is a transport activity, not an information society service
35. Warner Music Inks New Deal With YouTube, But Does Not Cease Its Complaints
36. The Premier League Kindly Requests Google De-List All Of Facebook Over Copyright Infringement Claims
37. Creator of infamous Playpen website sentenced to 30 years in prison
38. Kardashian lumped with lawsuit over Instagram snap
39. Third verse same as the first – Will Richard Prince’s transformation defense work yet again?
40. 5th Circuit: ISP Not Liable for Infringement Due to Lack of Volitional Conduct, Despite Ineligibility for DMCA Safe Harbor
41. Megaupload users still can’t get data back: The answer for users waiting five years for their seized data? Keep waiting.
42. YouTube taps creators, celebrities for new original shows on ad-supported site: Fitness with Kevin Hart, behind-the-scenes with Ellen, and more.
43. Lyor Cohen, YouTube’s music ambassador, makes his case to the big music labels: Warner Music Group signed a deal with YouTube and then complained about it. Here’s the video site’s response
44. Maker Studios wrapped up in new, more ‘curated’ Disney YouTube network
45. Disney rebrands all Youtube content under Disney Digital Network: Maker Studios output subsumed into new ‘Polaris’ channel
46. Time Inc. To Launch ‘Sports Illustrated’ SVOD Service, Slew Of Social Video Brands
47. What’s Wrong With Twitter’s Live-Video Strategy
48. Anti-Authoritarian Book Club: Twitter And Tear Gas (James Grimmelmann)
49. Report: Uber faces federal criminal probe over regulator-evading software
50. Imagination Technologies can’t resolve Apple IP spat, opens formal dispute: Starting in 2019, Apple will no longer use firm’s designs.
51. Tim Cook announces $1 billion investment in “advanced” US manufacturing: Apple also created a page highlighting the jobs it already supports in the US.
52. When Internet Memes Infiltrate the Physical World: Deplorable frogs and “nasty women” aren’t just online for comic relief. They’re central to how people engage with political issues.
53. What You Need to Know About Emoji Law (Yes, That’s a Thing)
54. Surveying the Law of Emojis (Eric Goldman)
55. Copyright Considerations for using Emoji in Commercial Ads
56. Data is giving rise to a new economy
57. Why Do Gas Station Prices Constantly Change? Blame the Algorithm: Retailers are using artificial-intelligence software to set optimal prices, testing textbook theories of competition; antitrust officials worry such systems raise prices for consumers
58. SpaceX Just Laid out a Plan to Give Everyone Internet Access
59. US Legislators Form VR-centric “Reality Caucus” to Guide Immersive Technology Policy
60. Verizon Is Paying the NFL $21 Million for Exclusive Streaming Rights to One Football Game
61. Premier League scores a big win against illegal streaming
62. Snapchat lines up media companies to produce original shows for Snap TV: Could your next favorite show be a Snapchat exclusive?
63. Amazon Alexa Will Now Wait On Seattle Mariners Fans In Private Suites At Safeco Field
64. Alexa, is Amazon poised to control the connected ecosystem of the future?
65. Social media and personal injury lawsuits
66. Libel in the age of the Internet: click with caution
67. Building a Better Loom: How technology might serve, rather than hinder, democracy
68. How Vladimir Putin mastered the art of ‘online Judo’ – and why the west should be worried: Russia is using the internet’s idealistic freedom as a hybrid-warfare weapon against the west
69. The inventor of the web Tim Berners-Lee on the future of the internet, ‘fake news,’ and why net neutrality is so important
70. Google and Facebook aren’t fighting fake news with the right weapons
71. Facing digital reality: Regulation, product complexity, and insurers’ large balance sheets have kept digital attackers from insurers’ gates. That is changing, but in ways incumbents should embrace. They can flourish in the digital age—if they move swiftly and decisively.
72. The meaning of life in a world without work
73. As technology renders jobs obsolete, what will keep us busy? Sapiens author Yuval Noah Harari examines ‘the useless class’ and a new quest for purpose
74. University Of Alberta Develops Smallest-Ever Edmonton Oilers Logo Via Nanotechnology

CREATIVITY

1. Spanish Citizen Sentenced To Jail For Creating ‘Unhealthy Humoristic Environment’
2. Police Union Sues Toy Gun Maker For Not Doing Enough To Keep Cleveland Cops From Killing 12-Year-Old Boys
3. Rome Court of Appeal confirms that mere indication of a work’s title is enough to trigger hosting provider’s liability
4. CJEU to rule on enforceability of German press publishers’ right
5. Molteni and Cassina duke it out over Gio Ponti chair design
6. “Turn Down for What” Becomes Latest Target for “Blurred Lines” Lawyer
7. US Entertainment Firm Milks Croatian Concert Promoter With Trademark Rights It May Never Have Owned
8. Sad Raiders Fans Fail To Keep Team In Oakland By Squatting On Trademark
9. A Photographer Sued a Student Over a School Project. Guess How That Turned Out–Reiner v. Nishimori (Eric Goldman)
10. How Zeke Smith’s Being Outed as Trans May Have Gotten Him Kicked Off Survivor
11. “Digital Is Cheaper” & Other Bogus Arguments
12. Illinois right of publicity allows truthful statements about performers in ads (Rebecca Tushnet)
13. Engineered To Deceive: Many of today’s visual artists are technological innovators, using advanced materials, industrial design, and sophisticated light manipulation to build experiences that trick your brain. Look inside their imaginations—and allow them to expand your own.
14. Is It “Fake News” To Call The Media “Fake News?”
15. The Local News Business Model
16. Vogue India Celebrated Its 10th Anniversary by Getting Kendall Jenner Into Even More Trouble
17. Coca-Cola and Music: A Case Study
18. The New Intellectuals: Political wars on college campuses aren’t really about free speech. They’re about what it means to be a student.
19. The Art Market’s Modigliani Forgery Epidemic: A skyrocketing interest in Amedeo Modigliani’s work is producing Picasso-level price tags, with major museum shows stoking the flame. Buyers are wary, though: the mystery surrounding one of the world’s most-faked artists has led to death threats, lawsuits, and hoaxes.
20. Branding “Vaverisms”: All I Really Need To Know I Learned From His Quips 

MEDIA, COMMUNICATIONS & NET NEUTRALITY

1. Lawsuit depicts Fox News as not just sexist. Not just misogynistic. Barbaric.
2. FCC to investigate, ‘take appropriate action’ on Colbert’s Trump rant
3. Opening up broadcast indecency
4. The FCC ‘Investigation’ Into Stephen Colbert Is A Complete Non-Story
5. FCC to Investigate Steven Colbert? – Much Ado About Nothing
6. A John Oliver Net Neutrality Rant Has Crippled The FCC Website A Second Time
7. FCC: John Oliver Didn’t Bring Down Our Site, Attackers Did – Just as the comedian sent a flood of people to support net neutrality, attackers brought commenting site down
8. After net neutrality comment system fails, senators demand answers: John Oliver caused big comment increase, but FCC blames DDoS attacks.
9. The FCC Claims A DDoS Attack — Not John Oliver — Crashed Its Website. But Nobody Seems To Believe Them
10. The FCC has received 128,000 identical anti-net neutrality comments: There might be a bot faking widespread net neutrality opposition.
11. The FCC Is Using Garbage Lobbyist Data To Defend Its Assault On Net Neutrality
12. AT&T Takes Heat For Avoiding Broadband Upgrades For Poor Areas
13. AT&T could be punished for unlimited data throttling after all: Ajit Pai cheers court decision, says case to overturn Title II is strengthened.
14. Comcast, Charter Join Forces In Wireless, Agree Not To Compete
15. Plan to kill municipal broadband fails in state legislature: Angry constituents convince Maine lawmakers to vote against Republican bill.
16. UK’s New ‘Digital Economy’ Law Somehow Now Gives Police The Power To Remotely Kill Phone Service
17. How the NFL is Crippling ESPN and Harming the Future of TV Sports
18. Only Connect

SURVEILLANCE & PRIVACY

1. Massive vulnerability in Windows Defender leaves most Windows PCs vulnerable: PCs can be compromised when Defender scans an e-mail or IM; patch has been issued.
2. Google phishing attack was foretold by researchers—and it may have used their code: A potential threat from spoofing Google applications was cited in 2011.
3. Security News This Week: Oh Good, Hackers Beat Two-Factor to Rob Bank Accounts
4. Man: Border agents threatened to “be dicks,” take my phone if I didn’t unlock it – “I believe strongly in the Constitution and in my right to privacy.”
5. Privacy, Poverty and Big Data: A Matrix of Vulnerabilities for Poor Americans
6. How Privacy Became a Commodity for the Rich and Powerful
7. Lawyers: How can we scrutinize surveillance records that remain sealed?: Stanford attorneys make unusual request to a federal court itself, DOJ opposes.
8. Lawyer: Cops “deliberately misled” judge who seemingly signed off on stingray – “Any system that is not transparent is inherently corrupt.”
9. Watch a cop’s staged body cam footage made “to look like it was done in real-time”: “The staging was done in such a way to make it look like it was done in real-time.”
10. Ahead Of His Senate Hearing, James Comey Pushes His ‘Going Dark’ Theory
11. James Comey Says Real Journalists Check With The Government Before Publication
12. Feds propose heightened social media vetting of visa applicants: Plan applies to applicants “who have been determined to warrant additional scrutiny.”
13. Investigatory Powers Act: Back doors, black boxes, and tech capability regs: Expert legal analysis of the UK’s spy law and what it could mean for end-to-end crypto.
14. Hidden Cameras And Zoom Lenses: Meet The Voyeur Pornographers: Revenge porn gets all the attention, but other forms of nonconsensual adult content are thriving under the radar
15. Is Facebook Taking Its First Steps Into VR Surveillance?: With new ‘Spaces’ app, privacy advocates warn it could one day offer a wealth of new data to advertisers
16. More Android phones than ever are covertly listening for inaudible sounds in ads: Your Android phone may be listening to ultrasonic ad beacons without your knowledge.
17. Your Keystrokes Can Reveal Who You Are — And How You Feel: An NYU researcher is using machine learning to show how easy it is to identify people and emotions from typing patterns
18. Happy or sad? Your future car might know the difference: Using deep learning technology, Affectiva developed an emotion recognition engine, and it promises to make cars much more human.
19. How Facial Recognition Will Help Doctors Take Better Care Of Babies: Medical researchers are developing facial analysis apps that diagnose genetic disorders and monitor babies’ pain
20. Facial Recognition Helps Parents Find Son 27 Years After Abduction: Tens of thousands of Chinese children are kidnapped every year, but artificial intelligence is helping families reunite
21. Internet Privacy – ISP Snooping and U.S. Surveillance Laws 

Jon